Indonesia to submit three cultural assets to UNESCO

Antara News, Monday, December 27, 2010

Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - Indonesia will submit three of its national cultural assets to UNESCO in 2011 to be appraised for inclusion in its list of World Cultural Heritages, a culture ministry official said.

"The three cultural assets to be submitted to UNESCO are a number of Balinese dances, the indigenous Papua household article called Noken, and the Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park (TMII)," said Harry Waluyo, director of the Cultural and Tourism Resources Agency (BSDKP) at the Culture and Tourism Ministry said here on Monday.

Waluyo said the three cultural assets will be submitted to UNESCO because they represent geographical parts of Indonesia outside Java. So far, the cultural assets for which Indonesia had proposed recognition as World Heritages by UNESCO were those of Java such as the Angklung (bamboo musical instrument) from West Java, batik cloth, wayang puppets from Central Java.

After the selection of cultural assets from Java, our next choice of Indonesian cultural assets to be submitted to UNESCO are articles or things from Bali and Papua," Waluyo said.

He said nine kinds of Balinese dances each representing a particular region in Bali would be proposed to UNESCO.

From Papua, the cultural asset to be nominated is the Noken, a Papuan people`s icon. The Noken, or Agiya, is a multi-purpose household device made of strong forest fibres in which Papuan women put their babies to lull them to sleep, or hogs, food items or clothes.

Nowadays, the Noken is decorated with certain colorful ornaments to make it look mroe attractive. A Noken can be bought at traditional markets in Papua for Rp 15,000- Rp100,000.

The TMII in East Jakarta, constructed in 1971, is a park reflecting the cultural richness of each Indonesian province, It was selected for submission to UNESCO on the consideration that the concept could serve as a model of non-material cultural management to other countries.

The process for the submission of the three cultural assets to UNESCO had already started and would end on March 31, 2011.

Apart from the three cultural assets, UNESCO in 2011 would announce the unique Saman dancing from Aceh province as a World Cultural Heritage.

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